Hector “Macho” Camacho is on life support after being shot in the face and neck Tuesday near San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Camacho, 50, went into cardiac arrest Wednesday morning and his condition worsened.

“He’s battling minute to minute,” Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan, said (via the Associated Press). “This is the most important fight of his life.”

(Sebastian Perez / AP)

Ismael Leandry, his former manager, told the AP that doctors were waiting for his mother to arrive from the U.S. and decide whether to take the former champion off life support.

“We just have to wait to see if Macho gets better. It’s a hard battle,” Leandry said.

Camacho was in the passenger seat of a car when at least one gunman opened fire. Although initial reports indicated that Camacho was expected to survive, he went into cardiac arrest at 4:15 a.m.

“The doctors were able to get his heart started again with the medicine, and we are maintaining his blood pressure and pulse stable medically right now to see whether during this morning, afternoon or evening we see a positive change,” Torres said. “… We will wait to see how he responds. He is a strong guy. The prognosis could change if he improves. The neurosurgeons are not intervening further at this point.”

Adrian Alberto Mojica Moreno, who died in the shooting, was shot next to his car. Although his relationship to Camacho was not yet known, ESPN.com reported that that Mojica Moreno had bags of cocaine in his possession. He had been arrested for possession of controlled substances in April 2012, a police dectective told ESPN.

Camacho, who won super lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight in the 1980s, has a 79-6-3 record, with 38 knockouts. In his last title bout, in 1997, he lost by unanimous decision to Oscar De La Hoya, who was then the welterweight champ. Camacho knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard in 1997, ending Leonard’s final comeback.

Since his boxing career ended, Camacho has had drug, alcohol and marital problems. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2007 in connection with the burglary of a Mississippi computer store. During the arrest, he was found to be in possession of the drug ecstasy. All but one year of the sentence was suspended and he was given probation. He violated probation, however, and served two weeks in jail. His wife filed for divorce several years ago, after twice filing complaints about domestic abuse.

After spending most of her career in traditional print sports journalism, Cindy began blogging and tweeting, first as NFL/Redskins editor, and, since August 2010, at The Early Lead. She also is the social media editor for Sports.

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